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Here is a gem that I found in the depths of the Internet. It adds to my ‘Animal Necrophilia Files’ and documents one of the most dramatic cases of avian homosexual necrophilia, and the first case I know of in Galliformes.

The three-minute video was first posted on the Internet on 7 April 2007 and titled ‘Der Rackelhahn – Ein unfruchtbarer Bastard’. It is dated 2004 and was taken and edited by Herbert Rödder *. ‘Professional hunter’ Hilmar Wichmann acted as biological consultant and producer (Rödder 2004). The location where the video was taped is unclear, but it was probably somewhere in northern Germany. Spoken comments are in the German language. Main character is a ‘Racklehahn’ – a male hybrid between a Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) and a Black Grouse (Tetrao tetrix). Both species occur across much of northern Eurasia and yield this hybrid throughout the zones of overlap within their respective distribution ranges and habits, especially in Scandinavia (Cramp & Simmons 1980; McCarthy 2006).

The video shows a snowy, forested landscape. It is a Black Grouse lek – an aggregation of males that gather to engage in competitive displays that may entice visiting females who are surveying prospective partners (for copulation). Two male Black Grouses are displaying. They do not attract females, but a Racklehahn. This cock quickly and vigorously attacks one of the Black Grouses. The much bigger bird tramples the grouse, hits him with his wings and forcefully pecks his head, with special attention for the bright red combs. After a mere 40 seconds the Racklehahn ends the fight by ripping off the head and throwing it away. Then he immediately mounts the lifeless mess and copulates for 20 seconds. After dismounting, the cock keeps pecking into the decapitated body.

The wording of the voice-over is carefully chosen, and spoken with appropriate diction:

[As he loses himself in the fight, he tears off the head and throws it away. It is hard to believe that a bird is capable of doing such a cruel act. What’s the front or rear of the tattered Black Grouse is barely visible. Nevertheless, the Rackelhahn copulates the lifeless body several times. Nature can be beautiful, but also cruel.]

Hybrids between male Black Grouse and female Capercaillie are the most common grouse hybrids (Porkert et al. 1997). They mostly turn out to be males (McCarthy 2006), and are known to occur solitary on black grouse leks where they display aggressively towards male black grouse (Hjorth 1970; Porkert et al. 1997). What this video documents – a fight that ends with the violent death (by decapitation) of a black grouse, immediately followed by a (homosexual necrophiliac) copulation – was not documented before. It is a unique case in animals. Homosexual necrophilia after non-violent death is known, in ducks and other vertebrates.

Although the decapitated grouse was a complete mess, the Racklehahn did mount the rear end, and mated while holding the neck (as the head was missing) with the drooped position of the partly spread wings (the classic copulatory position of Capercaillie – contrary to beating the wings during copulation by black grouse [Porkert et al. 1997]). The shivering body of the copulating Racklehahn clearly indicates penetration and ejaculation.

* I tried to trace and contact the people who took and produced this video, but failed. Should any know them, please let me know as I am interested to see the uncut footage.

That was a nice surprise. I arrived in Washington at the end of the afternoon, and found out the National Museum of Natural History was open till 7:30 pm. So I had a full hour to wander around the exhibition halls. I especially liked the way the museum presents the (recent) mammals. The human species was definitely the best part:

In February 2013, The Daily Show invited me to come to New York, to talk about my (still continuing) efforts to collect pubic louse specimens for the collection of the Natural History Museum Rotterdam. It was a pleasant experience to work with the professionals that produce this comedy news show. They even brought me to trendy bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The item aired on April 8th, 2013. Watch it here, or click on the image.

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The Staatliche Naturhistorische Sammlungen Dresden (Museum fur Tierkunde, abteilung mammalogie) Germany, has a nice collection of bats from Indonesia, dating back to the end of the 19th century, collected by the legendary Adolf B. Meyer. To revive a long running project of Erwin Kompanje and myself (to describe and identify a small collection of fruitbats from Talaud, kept at the Natural History Museum Rotterdam) the two of us drove to Dresden and studied the (stuffed) fruit bats from that archipelago north of Sulawesi, Indonesia. Zoological material from that area is rare, but we found what we were looking for: the earliest collected specimen of Pteropus pumilus Miller 1910.